


“You know I love you, right?”

by marcustyphoon



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:24:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcustyphoon/pseuds/marcustyphoon
Summary: The commander and Taimi accidentally have a heart-to-heart.





	“You know I love you, right?”

**Author's Note:**

> Here are the first 4 lines of Season 4, Episode 3:
> 
> Taimi: Commander...uh, you know I love you, right?  
> Player: You're in trouble, aren't you?  
> Taimi: I mean, "trouble" is such a strong word—  
> Player: Out with it, Taimi.
> 
> That might be my favorite piece of dialogue in the game. So I thought... what if it had gone slightly differently?
> 
> This was also heavily inspired in tone by commanderyes’ comics, which you can find [here](https://commanderyes.tumblr.com).
> 
> Character photo: [Ashlynne (sylvari guardian)](https://gossamer-scraps.tumblr.com/image/150985466008)
> 
> **Major spoiler warning for Path of Fire and up to (but not including) living story s4ep3. Seriously, play through them first.**
> 
> Enjoy, and please do leave any feedback you have!

_Ashlynne sits in the short grass on a rock outcropping overlooking Ventry Bay. She’s trying to mop the black blood–or–something from the greatsword that she overzealously shoved through a champion awakened’s head. In the distance, a team of three scientists are pointing phasic distortion readers at the fading remains of an awakened portal and arguing amongst themselves. As the goo inexplicably begins to fade from reality, a speaker inside her armor sparkles to life._

“Commander…uh, you know I love you, right?”

“Taimi…”

She drops the sword into the grass and pulls Taimi’s communicator gizmo out of an inside pocket, holding it up to the sky a bit to improve the signal.

_Never thought I’d hear her say that._

“I… wow. Yeah, I—” She chuckles. “I mean, I can’t say I expected you to put it that way. I love you too, Taimi. Maybe we don’t say that aloud enough… or at least, I know I don’t.”

_Friends will go through anything for each other,_  says Sieran’s voice in her head. Ashlynne had never told her how much she meant.

She swallows and continues. “Especially with how dangerous it’s been, and how many close calls we’ve had, I—”

 The small anguished sound from the gizmo’s single tinny speaker reminds her of the sounds from Scruffy as she swung her warhammer again and again against the glass bubble. Ashlynne’s voice breaks and she lets go of the transmit button. She takes a few shivering breaths. “Sorry, I didn’t—”

“It’s fine! It’s fine! I’m fine. I mean. I, uh…” Taimi’s voice speeds up. “Heh, what am I talking about, I dunno why I’d be anything else, I mean honestly if anyone Gorrik’s the one who’s—”

“Taimi.” Ashlynne pauses, looking for the right words. She opens her mouth, closes it again, finding herself gripping the communicator so tightly that the sharp corners dig into her skin. “Taimi, it’s okay. Look… I know you don’t like feeling like people are checking up on you, or… or worrying about you, that’s it, right? I know that sucks, because… I feel like that too. All the time, really.” She finds herself self–consciously checking if anyone but Ridhais, who’s lying on her back a few yards away, has climbed up onto the rock. No one, and she’s opened up to Ridhais before.

“Y-yeah? Suuure you do.” Taimi laughs unsurely. “‘Course. C’mon, you’re the _commander_ , you can literally punch gods in the face and have your dragon basically eat them! No one’s worrying about you, alright?”

Ashlynne smiles. “First of all, that one was mostly Aurene, honestly. No, but… listen. You—you should have seen their faces. Kasmeer’s, especially, but even Canach’s and Rytlock’s. And maybe theirs especially, because it’s _Canach and Rytlock_. When I…” She pauses, takes a deep breath. “When I… died. When I stepped through the portal and came back and opened my eyes. I didn’t really know if it’d been the right choice until I saw the three of them leaning over me, trying—trying not to show each other they were hurting. That _I was hurting them_.”

_It was four of them,_ she knows, but doesn’t say it. _You were hiding it, too, Taimi, but everyone knew._

“So I get it, I really do. I don’t want anyone fussing over me. I hate feeling like I’m bringing my team—my friends—down, and I know you’re the same. But I _promise_ , Taimi, cross my heart, **I’m not worried about you**. …Okay, like, besides your sleep schedule, I guess. For the alchemy’s sake, or whatever, you need to close your eyes for more than 20 minutes at a time at least once a week, Tai.” The resulting (probably sleep–deprived) giggles through the communicator are rewarding as always.

“Seriously, though. Singlehandedly stopping two elder dragons at the same time aside, you’re just as clever, strong, brave, and tough as the rest of us. I’ve got noooothing to worry about—”

“Heyy,” interjects the communicator. “Did you say ‘As clever?’ ‘ **As** ’?”

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant, Taimi!” They share a laugh. “But really. You’re one of us. You’re family. I love you, and I really mean it. And that means I’m here if you ever want to talk. I want to know if you’re overwhelmed, if you’re afraid, if you’re unsure of what in Tyria we’re supposed to be doing to save everyone on the planet from this damn sack of decomposing dolyak excrement covered in beetles. Because I…”

“Because I am, too, y’know.”

There’s a long pause. A seagull lands on a nearby ledge with a flutter of wings, looks at Ashlynne without much curiosity, then flies away again. After a while, the speaker sparkles back to life.

“Th-thanks, Ash. Really, I mean it. I never really… I, um, I suppose I’m… heh, I…” Taimi trails off. “Ahem, mm, so… this talking about your feelings thing is really hard?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Ashlynne finds herself hugging the communicator, accidentally muffling the microphone.

“Sorry, what was that? Signal might not be great…”

She holds it out again, sheepishly looking around to see if anyone was looking. “Oh, sorry, uh, I said you don’t have to tell me twice.” She smiles, a little wistfully. “I was never really able to admit anything like this until I met Kasmeer. Not sure if it’s the mesmer powers, or what, but she saw right through me.” She stares at her collection of weapons, laid out neatly on the rocks beside her. “Y’know, I’m… I’m not an invincible warrior or a brilliant tactician or a courageous hero or whatever people seem to think of me. I’m just a regular person who wanted to help. And somehow it worked, I guess, and we won, sort of, and more and more people think I can do it again and again, and again, but I’m not…” She shakes her head. “I’m not.”

Taimi’s voice is quiet. “But you are.”

“Taimi…”

“No, really. You are. You killed two whole elder dragons—”

“Which was apparently a super bad idea! You’re the one who figured that out!” Ashlynne hits a gauntlet–covered fist against the rock face, sending a few pebbles bouncing down into the bay below. She grimaces.

“Doesn’t matter, if they were gonna turn Tyria into plants vs zombies! And we’ll fix it, somehow, not really sure how yet but it’s a work in progress! But you saw that people were suffering, and you stepped up and did what you had to do to protect them. Again and again. And you—” It’s hard to hear, but Taimi might be choking back a sob. “And you _died,_  Ash. You died, and you… you came back. I dunno how, but you came back and you’re still here and you’re still fighting whether or not you think you’ll—we’ll—win, and if that’s not being a hero I don’t know what is.”

A poorly–timed gust of wind blows some particles of dust into Ashlynne’s eyes, or something like that, and she blinks quickly for a few moments, discarding the glove to rub her eyes. “O-of course I came back. And hopefully I won’t have to do it again, but I’ll damn well fight my way back again if it comes to that. You can bet on it.” There’s what feels like a small fire in her chest. “…er, I guess Canach actually has bet on it, hasn’t he. That’s still… really strange, don’t you think?”

Taimi snorts. “I mean, I’d be betting on you too, if they’d let me in the casino! I need to get that prototype voice changer module and the electromagnetic window tint into the Scruffy 2.1 upgrade so they’ll think I’m an adult!” Her enthusiasm fades. “Well, I guess I need to replace the whole window, first… and a short list of other repairs… or maybe a long list…”

Ashlynne grimaces. “Er, sorry about all of the damage…” Almost like a movie, her mind plays back the sound, the fire, the screaming, the cracks in her friend’s handiwork deepening terrifyingly slowly, her own screaming…  
  
Taimi is quick to interject. “No, no, to the contrary! You saved my life. Um… thank you, again. Really. I know I’ve said it before, but I really can’t say it enough…” There’s a little sob in her voice. “I mean, heh, just in time, too, that could’ve been—*hic*—really bad…”

_Oh, Taimi._  Ashlynne can hardly resist the urge to call her griffon and fly back to the dolyak ranch/plague lab/dragon’s watch HQ without another word to give her a hug. “N-no, don’t mention it. I’m just—just glad you’re okay. Really glad _._ ” _Really, really glad._  “H-hey, lesson learned, right? ‘Don’t be _too_ brilliant an inventor?’ Or maybe, ‘give your friends weapons so strong they can even break your stuff?’”

“H-hah, I’ll get right on that.” A sniffle. “Or, how about this: we break mister grubface putridbreath into tiny pieces and feed him bit by bit into the core of my fusion reactor prototype, so he can Suffer. As. Much. As. His. Victims.” Her words are punctuated by a loud banging of something against a desk. “(Oops, spilled my espresso into my energy drink.)”

“I’m in.” A small burst of blue flames surrounds Ashlynne, flickering for a few moments before slowly subsiding. “Wait… your what in your what? Taimi!”

She can’t stop giggling. “Um, I mean my… it’s decaf! Definitely decaf! And it’s totally Blish’s, actually, not mine! It was just on my desk!”

“…Blish’s. You’re telling me that  _Blish_ drinks coffee.”

“Uhhhhhhh noo… He was… using it for an experiment! Or something!”

A faintly audible “I was absolutely not experimenting on your coffee, but nice save” in the background, plus some uproarious laughter, puts a swift end to that theory. Ashlynne can’t help joining in.

“By the tangled roots of some questionably legal stimulant weeds, Taimi! Phew. Oh, man.” It takes a few moments to catch her breath. “I really do love you, y’know.”

“You bet I do!” Ashlynne can imagine the finger guns that are undoubtedly being pointed at the other end of the communicator. “Heyyy, wait, that reminds me! Soo, I may have actually called you originally to try and cajole a favor out of you, not to have a heart–to–heart about being open with each other about our fears of horrible failure and gruesome death…”

“…Oh? Ohhh, wait… so, that ‘I love you’ was just a **joke** …”

“Not **just**! I mean, I meant it like that oriiiiiginally, buuuut—”

“Damn it.” Ashlynne puts her face in her hands, trying to stop smiling.

“No, no, I mean it! I do!”

“Taimi.”

“You’re the best!”

“You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”

“I mean, “trouble” is such a strong word—”

_fin_


End file.
